Please may I have shopping advice pre-puppy arrival?

[Romanarama]

We are bringing our Golden Retriever puppy home in 2 weeks, and I have nothing but a blanket!

The breeder has told me which food to get, and has said she'll sell me a lead and brush. I'm going to the pet shop later for a big crate and some food and water bowls. I've signed up for puppy classes and have read "The Perfect Puppy"

What else do I need to buy/do????

We've found the following pretty indispensable...

Simple Solution for removing scent evidence of indoor puddles. Some people swear by biological washing powder, but I never worked out what the right dilution was, and ended up washing my sitting room carpet in very small circles. Get the big size, decant into a spray bottle and accessorise with several family packs of kitchen towel.

A puppy Kong. Our puppy doesn't mind getting into his crate for an hour or two while I go to the shops, because he knows it's Kong time. Stuff with half of one of his meals if on dry food, plus a few really tiny tasty treats to encourage him to keep working away at it.

Chew toys. And, ideally, Bitter Apple spray to deter chewing. Although if your puppy's like mine, he will eventually develop a taste for it.

Also, buy metal or earthenware bowls; easier to keep clean, and I don't know if it's an old wives' tale, but our dog's breeder insists plastic bowls can discolour dogs' noses.

Aaaaand finally, check out internet pet stores for food. Our pup's on Proplan Robust Puppy which I've found for over a tenner less online, including delivery to the door. Since am already bankrolling our local Pets at Home, is nice to make savings where ever possible.

Obviously, don't apply Bitter Apple to the chew toys. That would be Cruella de Ville-ish. Spray the Bitter Apple on whatever you don't want your puppy to chew - shoes, table leg, etc - and then as soon as they take a lick and rebound, repulsed, offer them something they are allowed to chew, with lots of praise.

Lots of cheap towels from charity shops - in the early days pup will have lots of accidents in the crate and you'll be washing them all the time.

Best of luck

Just brought our puppy home 3 weeks ago so have just done all of this......

You may want a bed to pop in the crate (one that you can bung in the washing machine)

Stock up on newspaper as you'll need to line your crate with something (and not sure if you are paper training, or garden training!)

Lots of chewy toys the kong is brilliant but the stuffing is expensive so we just pop peanut butter in so you may want to get a jar! Got some bone things too, and the odd cuddly toy (our puppy loves her's!)

Hot water bottle for pets - we got a microwavable bean bag toy to pop under her blanket in bed at night to help her sleep.

Obviously lead and collar (and id tag) poo bags too!

We also got a hormone diffuser thing which we plugged in to help her settle, this really helped.

You also need to think about how you are transporting puppy home (crate, harness, carrier?)

Oh and sleep in an old tshirt for a few nights which you can then put in puppy's crate at night.

Lastly we found that she slept much better if the crate was covered at night - so we cover it in a large picinic rug which helps.

Shop around - have found the internet cheaper for most things.......

Hope that helps!

Brilliant, thank you very much. I think I'll give the hormoner diffuser a miss to start with though! Don't want the dcs behaving strangely...

How is it going booreeve?

It's going really really well, once I got past the initial shock! I'd done a huge amount of research and we'd been talking about it for over a year, so in theory I knew what I was getting myself into (I'm a SAHM and run a small business from here too, so essentially the dog was going to be my problem!) but the first few days/week were really hard - and I did think that it might have been too much to take on, but things much much better now!

Just be really disciplined about taking the puppy out to pee, and it gets way easier once the puppy has had their jabs and you can start going out properly. I am quite strict at home, and she lives in kitchen, but I won't let her be unsupervised anywhere else in the house (yet)

I would recommend trying to get to a puppy class ( I know there have been some posts recently that have been slightly critical of them) but even though I'd read "Perfect Puppy" and "Puppy Parenting" I have thus far found the classes really helpful. It's been really useful to get extra snipets of information and it's really given me the extra confidence, and I feel much better armed now to be a good dog owner. But I think it may depend on the classes - ours, although a large class, about 15 pups, has got 1 leader, and 2 other assistants and it's really well run, and we've just been going through training rather than grooming etc...

I would also really really read up about your breed. I know that sounds silly but there will be particularities to your breed they you may not have been aware of (we have a French Bulldog - and had been trying to get her to sit and then go "down" apparently bulldogs are v difficult to teach to go "down") and great to understand how your breed's adrenaline levels work versus other dogs - especially when you have kids around, and it can really help to avoid over excitement etc.....